Ensemble Mumbai is decked up this festive season with the commemorative works of Abraham & Thakore, Gaurav Gupta, Payal Khandwala, and 35+ designers

When multi-designer store Ensemble first opened its doors in Mumbai’s in 1987, it was heralded as the first Indian fashion store to house beautiful clothes from multiple designers under one roof. Gayatri Tahiliani—fondly known as Tina by the entire fashion fraternity—pulled off the impossible. She managed to bring together Rohit Khosla, her brother Tarun Tahiliani, and ace designer duo Abu Jani & Sandeep Khosla, among others, under one roof. To celebrate 30 years in the industry, Gayatri has asked 40 designers, who are at the top their game, to create installations that will be on display throughout December 2017 at Ensemble Mumbai. The installation will be on display until the first week of January 2018.

Here are the 5 designer installations that caught our attention:

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Abraham Thakore for Ensemble

Tarun Tahiliani for Ensemble

Payal Khandwala for Ensemble

Savio Jon for Ensemble

Amit Aggarwal for Ensemble

Abraham & Thakore

In David Abraham and Rakesh Thakore’s installation, the wood block becomes the focus. It celebrates the irregularity of the textile. The point of departure comes from Abraham & Thakore’s first collection developed for Ensemble. It consisted of graphic black and white tunic sets in double ikat.

David Abraham and Rakesh Thakore

Tarun Tahiliani

Tarun Tahiliani’s installation features several windows, each with a varying view of one of the vintage and current creations by the label. The effortless and overarching resonance of Tarun’s design aesthetics in all garments becomes apparent when viewed in this manner.

Payal Khandwala

Payal’s installation is a larger-than-life ensemble, its scale almost a metaphor for the place that Ensemble has held, and continues to hold, in the Indian fashion landscape. In signature gem colours, an exaggerated pleated origami poncho in a rich garnet is teamed with a structured silk skirt in deep amethyst and accessorised with a cluster of rhodolite-coloured handmade pleated flowers. Suspended, the garment is free-spirited and creates a certain movement and lightness, retaining its inherent structure and boldness.

Payal Khandwala

Savio Jon

Jon’s design philosophy has always been a nod towards the classic shirt, which he believes to be the most simple yet complex construction. Jon’s fascination with the shirt has him to explore variations of the t-shirt, tunic, and shirt dress whether he is constructing or deconstructing them or elevating them to some kind of theatrical status. With the installation, Jon has charted the progression of the humble shirt.

Savio Jon

Amit Aggarwal

The installation created for Ensemble India features Amit Aggarwal’s signature embellishments and weaving techniques that have been used in combination with Patola fabrics. They have been reinforced and reinvented using recycled metallic polymer strips to create avant-garde propositions in textile design.

Amit Aggarwal

Here are some of the other installations on display at Ensemble Mumbai: